Shades of Gray

Counting Crows - Live - Galactic

New World Music Theatre - Tinley Park

Chicago-based Counting Crows fans just can't seem
to get a break. The group continues to find itself stuck inside the two worst
music venues in the region — if not the country. During fall,
winter, and spring, the band is forced to perform at the acoustically vapid Aragon Ballroom, while
on its summer excursions, it is routinely packaged as part of triple-band bills
at the equally dismal New World Music Theatre. In Chicago, it just doesn't seem
to matter where it performs. The venue is always overcrowded, and the aural experience is consistently less than desirable.

Fortunately, this time at least, the crowd factor was minimized due to an
overcast day full of scattered thunderstorms and torrential downpours. Sadly,
however, other factors came into play to turn the August 5 concert into a rather
disappointing evening. Crammed onto a bill at the New World Music Theatre with Live
and Galactic, the Counting Crows was left with a mere sixty-five minutes to
strut its stuff. In the long run, this may have been for the better. Frontman Adam Duritz, who
proclaimed he was celebrating a birthday, was visibly inebriated — falling several times throughout the concert and forgetting the title to his
most recent album. Nevertheless, the group did make the most of its ridiculously short set.

It was, however, an odd performance since the Counting Crows was unusually subdued. Opening with
the melancholic Colorblind, the band established the pace for their concert, which found
it shying away from many of its more rambunctious selections in favor of mellower material.
Even the infectious strains of I Wish I Was a Girl were delivered at a deliberately ponderous
amble.

Throughout the somber set, Duritz rummaged around inside his head, contemplating his hopes and
his dreams with morose profundity. A haunting pairing of Oasis'Live Forever and the Counting
Crows' own A Long December explored the fragility of life, while Anna Begins examined
the singer's inability to commit to a relationship.

Throughout it all, Duritz frequently touched upon his need to continuously
strive for change in an attempt to break out of his gray-shaded world. One would
expect this type of show to take place in a more intimate venue — not within the cavernous confines of an outdoor amphitheater. Yet, the
Counting Crows made it work as best as it could, though most of the subtle
nuances of the band's musical arrangements were lost in the quagmire of the arena's acoustics.

The muddy sound problems also prevailed throughout Live's sixty-five minute set, though the band
was determined to overcome the venue's inadequacies by delivering its bombastic clatter at full
volume. Even perfect acoustics, however, would not have made much difference. One song after another
found lead singer Ed Kowalczyk's screeching Axl Rose-possessed vocals drifting over a barrage of
power chords. The result was an utterly insufferable and endlessly monochromatic performance.

New Orleans-based Galactic fared the worst of all. Its songs were an intriguing mix of funked-up
jazz and blues, but the entirety of its 30-minute opening set poured through the venue's inferior
sound system and melted into a giant ball of sonic sludge. Even a guest appearance by Adam Duritz
was sucked into the indiscernible slop.

Sound problems like this are a horrible injustice to both the performers and their fans. One can
only hope the World's management will see the light and severely remodel the place, but that hasn't
ever even been proposed in the venue's decade-long existence. Each season, the theater's owners
proudly proclaim that they have made modifications to correct these difficulties — hence, the
introduction of the word new into the venue's name several years ago. However, even with increased
revenue from skyrocketing ticket and concession prices, nothing truly ever seems to improve — and
why should it? The owners know that there aren't any other alternatives in the Chicago market, and
therefore they have no incentive to really try to improve conditions. Sure, it would be for the good
of the music, but like most things in the business these days, it's all about the money.
Music has nothing to do with it.

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